Jeff Adams

I know that Labor Day is over and gone for another year, but I have been reflecting a bit on the meaning of this holiday. I didn’t make this post yesterday, because I was taking a day off from my labor.

Labor Day was first celebrated in 1882, inspired by a similar celebration in Canada and with the aim of bringing an end to a violent series of labor conflicts in the United States. I won’t bore you with the details because you can Google it yourself. Besides, we all know that the real meaning of Labor Day is that it is the unofficial end to Summer.

Seriously, my thoughts on Labor Day were inspired as I reviewed what I said Sunday about being the type of person to confront obstacles. I talked about the choice we have to be a victim or a victor and used several examples from people who have overcome tremendous obstacles. I was careful to use examples without specifically mentioning the individual’s great faith in God. In fact, one of the examples I used was of a vocal atheist. Some of the people I mentioned are believers, but that was not my point. My point is that if some people can confront and overcome obstacles by virtue of their own spirit, how much more should those of us who profess faith in Jesus Christ be able to do the same and more!

I see an attitude that has infected even many professing followers of Jesus – the thought that one is entitled to everything without having to work for it. If I need something, it should be up to the government, or my employer or even the church to make sure that I get it.  If one or another of these institutions does not come through for me, then I will sit and whine and complain that I am being victimized.Whatever happened to getting up and working hard to provide for what we need?

Sometimes we hear people use the phrase work ethic.  It used to be common to say Protestant work ethic, a phrase coined by Max Weber in his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism written in the early 1900′s. While some of his ideas have been criticized, Weber’s thought was to connect a strong work ethic to the teaching of Luther, Calvin and other leaders of the Protestant Reformation who taught the obligation of hard work as the sign of people under the grace of God. They did not teach hard work to earn salvation or favor with God, but as the testimony of those who have been saved and blessed by the favor of God’s grace.

Sometimes the ethic was called the Puritan work ethic as a testimony to the hard work of Puritan believers. Another group with this same type of testimony was the Moravians who sent missionaries around the world in the 1700′s and afterward from a small local church in Germany comprised primarily of farmers, artisans and common laborers. They believed that if one stopped working, he or she would simply die. They saw hard work as part of life’s calling upon a believer.

In this current economic climate, if we have jobs we should indeed be grateful for them. Perhaps Labor Day can be a  reminder of our responsibility to do our jobs to the very best of our abilities, to work hard, to live out the life of Christ by the way we go about our business.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at 9:54 pm and is filed under Ministry Musings, Social Commentary, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.